Green Tea Red Bean Bread Loaf

I've not baked soft buns for a few months, especially since I started baking breads using sourdough. These breads usually have long fermentation period. So far, I still haven't gotten them right. My family members also don't fancy artisan breads, likely because I haven't gotten them right. So I decided to try pre-fermentation bread.

As my helper has gone back on her home leave, I was home half the day. To make sure my children have their meals, and do the basic and necessary housework chores. Therefore, I still have time in the afternoon to prepare my pre-fermentation for baking the following day.

I decided to try this Green Tea Red Bean Bread loaf from Fong's Kitchen. The instructions were very detailed and simple. I followed through except I used storebought red bean paste and rolled them in.

Recipe for Green Tea Red Bean Bread, adapted from Fong's Kitchen Journal.

Ingredients:
Pre-ferment dough:
210g Bread flour
120g Water (80g milk + 40g water)
1 tsp Instant yeast (about 5g)

1) Prepare pre-ferment dough: Mix yeast with water, then combine with bread flour, yeast and milk powder.  Knead till smooth dough. Cover and keep in fridge for 17 hours before use.

Main dough:
80g Bread flour
6g Green tea powder
2g Instant yeast
40g Fine sugar
70g Water
25g LIV Unsalted butter, softened
230g Red bean paste, rolled out

Method:
2) Mix ingredients for main dough (except butter) and knead till combined.  Gradually add in the pre-fermented dough, piece by piece and knead to get a smooth dough. 

3) Add in the butter and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough.  Cover and proof the dough for 30 minutes.

4) Roll out the dough and place the red bean paste on the centre. Then use the sides of the dough to cover the red bean paste completely.

5) Fold the dough into thirds. Then roll it flat and fold in the opposite direction into thirds also. Then cut into thirds and plait it. Refer to the picture from Carol's site.

6) Let the dough rest in a loaf pan for 45mins.

7) Bake in preheated oven of 180C for 24 minutes till golden brown. Cover the top with foil after 13mins to prevent it from being charred.

8) Remove from the loaf pan immediately after baking. Let it cool completely before slicing.

Red Bean Wholemeal Buns

Using the same dough recipe as my Mushroom & Cheese Buns, I made some Red Bean Buns last weekend. The red bean were left over from making the mochi.

I managed to make 13 buns. I usually make quite a lot on Saturdays so that I can give some to my parents and my siblings. I used 25g red bean paste for each dough. Rolled them up like swiss rolls and flatten them. Then cut 3 slits in the centre, and twist them. Then, let them proof. I brushed them with milk and sprinkle black sesame seeds on it before baking. After baking, I realised each of them have their own designs, quite unique actually.

[Afternote: I realised 25g of red bean paste is not enough. Feedback from my siblings is that red bean paste not prominent. Therefore, it'll be better to increase it to 40g per dough to have that real red bean taste!]

Comfort Food

How many of us have comfort foods? I've never thought that I would have my comfort food. However, I just realised that what I've baked today, is one of my comfort food, and will somehow craved for it. The definition of comfort food as defined by Wikipedia is:
"Comfort food refers to a variety of familiar, simple foods that are usually home-cooked or eaten at informal restaurants. Comfort food is typically inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare. Many people turn to comfort food for familiarity, emotional security, or as a special reward. The reasons a dish becomes comfort food are diverse but often include pleasant associations of childhood. Small children often seem to latch on to a specific food or drink (in a way similar to a security blanket [PAB: sounds familiar??]) and will repeatedly request it in high stress situations. Adults eat comfort food for a sense of continuity."
Do you agree to this definition, or do you have your comfort food?


Today's bake was not really because I want to use up my red bean paste. Well, er...partly. But mostly because, I just love the taste of red bean with sesame seeds on my bread. It was just one simple recipe with five different designs, just for fun. Therefore, I can safely say that, Red Bean Buns are just one of my comfort food. Another comfort food that I can think of, had to be dark chocolates!



I made bacon & mushroom quiche for lunch yesterday. I like to use Rei's recipe for the crust now. It's really crispy & crusty. Can never go wrong with this crust!

Another Birthday Cake

I had been rather lapse in posting lately. I had been lazy, busy and dizzy all week! When I'm in front of the PC, I felt dizzy, then lazy set in. However, I cannot be lazy anymore, otherwise, I'll have lots of backlog posts!! Goodness me!

I had been busy whole week, preparing for Saturday. I made Vanilla Ice-Cream and Cheesecake in the mid-week, prior to Saturday. As both of these needed to be refrigerated way before the actual day of consumption, I had to prepare them in advance.

1. Vanilla Ice-Cream. I went through all the ice cream recipe, wanting to find the easiest to make. As it was to be used as an accompanied to my sister's Chocolate Fondant, I want it to be easy and creamy. I finally use the recipe from Recipetips.com. I modified the recipe a little to suit my taste. Instead of 6 egg yolks, I used 10 egg yolks as my eggs were pretty small. I replaced vanilla extract with a vanilla pod seeds and used 2 cups of whipping cream instead. The end result?? Creamy, real & taste expensive!!



2. Triple Layer Birthday Cheesecake. My youngest sister requested for a cheesecake. I asked if she can accept anything exotic, she said she can't. As I've baked cheesecake for her and my BIL before, I couldn't think of what other flavour I could try. Last year was the Chocolate Torte. How time has fly! After going through my cheesecake recipes, I finally settled on the recipe from "Delicious Cakes" called Triple Layer Birthday Cheesecake. This recipe needed to steam-bake the cheese layer by layer, each layer for 30 minutes. The three layers are Coffee, White Chocolate and Chocolate. I was thinking of topping it with a layer of crusted oreos after baking. However, after baking, the top was so smooth...so beautiful! There was no cracks to be found anywhere! This was my BEST cheesecake I ever baked! So I decided to frost as little as possible, to keep the smooth top visible. So this was my final decoration!




Saturday bakes include the following.
3. Red Bean Buns. I bought the red bean paste from PH lately as I found their red bean paste to be very nice, and I remembered my dad likes it. So I made a whole bunch of them to be given to my family members. I made different designs and put them into the muffin trays, an idea I got from Honey Bee Sweets.



4. Kueh Makmur. This was in my "To Bake" list. After the unsuccessful attempt the last time, I had to try again using different recipe. I used Honey Bee Sweets' recipe this time, though quite a lot of work, I was quite determined to bake this. However, I had added the egg white while the flour were not thoroughly cooled, resulting in my dough being too wet to roll. I ended having to put them in the fridge, then adding a lot more plain flour to it. The baking caused the dough to crack. Fortunately, the overall taste was much better than the previous attempt. At least, it was still melt-in-the-mouth texture! Quite happy with the outcome, though not happy with the process!

Green Tea Red Beans Swiss Rolls

It's been a long time since I did swiss rolls. I've always like swiss rolls, but sometimes, it didn't turn out well. I didn't know what flavour I should baked, and my sister suggested Green Tea, which I also like. So I decided to go for Green Tea with Red Beans Swiss Rolls today. I hope it taste good!

Green Tea Red Bean Bread

I just had to re-do this Green Tea Red Bean Bread again. The last time I did, I didn't let it proof long enough. So now, I take my time to let it proof. I also baked it as a loaf, instead of buns.

Brushed it with egg yolk before baking. After the second proofing.

Green tea bread loaf after baking. The side is nicely rolled up like a swiss roll.

This is one pattern on one side of the bread...

while this is another pattern on the other of the bread!

As I rolled up the dough a few times, the red beans are folded a number of times. Close up on the red bean paste.

Recipe extracted from Happy Home Baking.
[Afternote: This bread is really nice, soft & tasty.]

Green Tea Red Bean Bread

I have always like green tea, in whatever combinations. I finally found a recipe, simple for me to try. This is from Happy Home Baking blog. Baked this on Friday night.

The first round of proofing was done by poking a finger into the dough.

The red bean paste was placed in the centre of the dough.

Rolled it out and flattened it. Then rolled it like swiss roll.

Cut them out individually.

Put it into a cake pan, leaving it space to proof.

After proofing for about 45minutes, it covered the whole of the pan.

Baking the breads in the oven.

Fresh from the oven. Smells good, but it's a little tough. I think I didn't proof long enough. But it taste real good! Enough green tea taste!

Recipe is extracted from Happy Home Baking blog, Matcha Red Bean Loaf. Her step by step guide is very good. Do check it out!

Back to baking

I'm back to baking again. I baked breads again on Saturday. It's luncheon meat, sausage & red bean breads. Somehow, my breads are still not as soft as what is sold outside. But I'll keep on trying!

The batch of freshly baked breads.

Up close with red bean & sesame bread.

Up close with sausage bread.

I'm into breads!

I've always like breads. Didn't think I want to bake breads since I like them so much. But lately, I've been baking breads. Though I'm not creative to create a bread on my own, at least I tried to bake the basic breads well first. :) Today's breads are sausages with pork floss & red bean sesame breads.

Brush them with egg before baking, so that it will give a nice shiny brown.

Topped the red bean breads with sesame seeds.

These are the baked sausages breads.

I spread them with sweetened condensed milk, then topped them with crispy pork floss.

My batch of breads today. :) Don't have to buy bread for tomorrow already!

What's in my tarts?

Didn't feel like baking up a storm on Saturday after a couple of failed tries on sponge cake. So, I decided to bake tarts (from the leftover dough in the freezer).

Baked tart shells of two sizes.

Upclose with the crispy tart shells fresh from the oven. It was handmade, therefore, it wasn't uniform. :p

These are chocolate with Bailey's Irish creme caramel tartlets.

Pastry cream with Grand Marnier Orange.

Pastry cream with payaya bits (non alcoholic!)

Chocolate with Grand Marnier Orange.

Mini tartlets from left to right: pastry cream with Grand Marnier Orange, chocolate with Grand Marnier Orange & pastry cream with payaya bits.

Cross section of the chocolate Creme Caramel tart.


I baked breads on Friday evening. Didn't turn out to be as soft as I want them to be. There were bak kwa, kaya, Nutella chocolate & red beans.